A new declaration of refusal by "shministim" - students of the
11th and 12th grades of Israeli high schools - addressed to prime minister
Ariel Sharon, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, IDF chief of staff Moshe
Yaalon and Education Minister Limor Livnat, has already collected 250
signatures of youngsters facing their term of compulsory military service.

The first members of the group are due to report at the IDF induction in
the coming days, and the refusenik community is awaiting to see how the
army treats them.

The text runs:

"We, boys and girls,
citizens of Israel, who believe in the values of democracy, humanism and
pluralism, hereby declare that we will refuse to take part in the policy
of occupation and repression for which the Israeli government has opted.
We come from a variety of backgrounds, but all are agreed that the
following values are the basis of a just society. Every person is entitled
to basic rights: the right to life, equality, dignity and freedom. It is
our conscientious and civic duty to act in defence ofthese rights by refusing to take part in the policy of occupation
and repression.

The occupation entails forfeiting human dignity and massive loss of human
life. It affects the basic rights of millions of persons and causes daily
killing and suffering. It leads to land confiscation, mass demolition of
homes, arrests and extra-legal executions, ill-treatment and the murder of
innocents, hunger, deprivation of medical care, collective punishment,
construction and expansion of Jewish settlements and prevents any
possibility of a normal life in the occupied territories and in Israel.
This flagrant deprival of human rights runs counter to our entire
philosophy, as well as international conventions which Israel has signed
and confirmed.

The occupation does not contribute to the security of the state and its
citizens, it merely harms them.It
exacerbates despair and hatred among the Palestinian people, sustains
terrorism and expands the cycle of violence. True security will be
achieved only by ending the occupation, dismantling the Apartheid wall and
working for a just peace agreement between the state of the Israel and the
leadership of the Palestinian people and the Arab world overall. The
present policy does not stem from defence needs, rather, from a
nationalist and messianic world view.

The occupation corrupts Israeli society, rendering it militarist, racist,
chauvinist and violent. Israel is wasting its resources on perpetuating
the occupation and repression in the occupied territories, at a time when
hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens live in shameful poverty. The
state's citizens have experienced a decline of all public systems in
recent years. Education, health care, infranstructure, pensions, social
benefits and everything to do with the welfare of Israel's citizens - are
neglected in favour of supporting settlements that a majority wants to see
dismantled. We cannot stand by in view of this situation, which
constitutes the "focussed liquidation" of the principle of
equality.

We want to see the society in which we live pursuing justice, upholding
equality for every person and citizen. The policy of occupation and
repression is an obstacle to realisation of that vision, and we shall
refuse to take part therein.We
wish to contribute to society in an alternative way, which does not
involve harm to human beings.

We call upon all young people awaiting induction, and all the soldiers of
the Israeli army, to reconsider whether to risk their lives in taking part
in the policy of repression and destruction.